To whom quick answer Satan thus returned :— "Belial, in much uneven scale thou weigh'st All others by thyself. Because of old
Thou thyself doat'st on womankind, admiring Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace, None are, thou think'st, but taken with such toys. Before the Flood, thou, with thy lusty crew, False titled Sons of God, roaming the Earth, Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men, And coupled with them, and begot a race. Have we not seen, or by relation heard,
In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st, In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,
In valley or green meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene, Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,
Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more
Too long-then lay'st thy scapes on names adored,
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan,
Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan? But these haunts
Delight not all. Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made small account Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned
All her assaults, on worthier things intent!
Remember that Pellean conqueror,
A youth, how all the beauties of the East He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed; How he surnamed of Africa dismissed,
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid. For Solomon, he lived at ease, and, full
Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond Higher design than to enjoy his state;
Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.
But he whom we attempt is wiser far
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,
Made and set wholly on the accomplishment
Of greatest things. What woman will you find, Though of this age the wonder and the fame, On whom his leisure will vouchsafe an eye Of fond desire? Or should she, confident, As sitting queen adored on Beauty's throne, Descend with all her winning charms begirt To enamour, as the zone of Venus once Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell), How would one look from his majestic brow, Seated as on the top of Virtue's hill, Discountenance her despised, and put to rout All her array, her female pride deject,
Or turn to reverent awe! For Beauty stands In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abashed Therefore with manlier objects we must try His constancy-with such as have more show Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise (Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked); Or that which only seems to satisfy Lawful desires of nature, not beyond.
And now I know he hungers, where no food
Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness:
The rest commit to me; I shall let pass
No advantage, and his strength as oft assay.”
He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim; Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band
Of Spirits likest to himself in guile, To be at hand and at his beck appear,
If cause were to unfold some active scene
Of various persons, each to know his part;
Then to the desert takes with these his flight, Where still, from shade to shade, the Son of God, After forty days' fasting, had remained,
Now hungering first, and to himself thus said :--"Where will this end? Four times ten days I have
Wandering this woody maze, and human food
Not tasted, nor had appetite. That fast To virtue I impute not, or count part
Of what I suffer here. If nature need not, Or God support nature without repast, Though needing, what praise is it to endure? But now I feel I hunger; which declares Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God Can satisfy that need some other way, Though hunger still remain. So it remain Without this body's wasting, I content me, And from the sting of famine fear no harm; Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts, that feed Me hungering more to do my Father's will."
It was the hour of night, when thus the Son Communed in silent walk, then laid him down Under the hospitable covert nigh
Of trees thick interwoven. There he slept, And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream, Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet. Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood, And saw the ravens with their horny beaks Food to Elijah bringing even and morn— Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought;
He saw the Prophet also, how he fled Into the desert, and how there he slept Under a juniper-then how, awaked,
He found his supper on the coals prepared, And by the Angel was bid rise and eat, And eat the second time after repose, The strength whereof sufficed him forty days: Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,
Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.
Thus wore out night; and now the herald lark Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry The Morn's approach, and greet her with his song. As lightly from his grassy couch up rose Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream ; Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked. Up to a hill anon his steps he reared, From whose high top to ken the prospect round, If cottage were in view, sheep-cote, or herd; But cottage, herd, or sheep-cote, none he saw— Only in a bottom saw a pleasant grove, With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud. Thither he bent his way, determined there To rest at noon, and entered soon the shade High-roofed, and walks beneath, and alleys brown, That opened in the midst a woody ɛcene;
Nature's own work it seemed (Nature taught Art), And, to a superstitious eye, the haunt
Of wood-gods and wood-nymphs. He viewed it round; When suddenly a man before him stood,
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
As one in city or court or palace bred,
And with fair speech these words to him addressed :"With granted leave officious I return,
But much more wonder that the Son of God In this wild solitude so long should bide, Of all things destitute, and, well I know, Not without hunger. Others of some note, As story tells, have trod this wilderness: The fugitive bond-woman, with her son, Outcast Nebaioth, yet found here relief By a providing Angel; all the race
Of Israel here had famished, had not God Rained from heaven manna; and that Prophet bold,
Native of Thebez, wandering here, was fed
Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.
Of thee these forty days none hath regard, Forty and more deserted here indeed."
To whom thus Jesus:-"What conclud'st thou hence? They all had need; I, as thou seest, have none."
"How hast thou hunger then?” Satan replied. "Tell me, if food were now before thee set, Would'st thou not eat?" "Thereafter as I like The giver," answered Jesus. "Why should that Cause thy refusal ?" said the subtle Fiend. “Hast thou not right to all created things? Owe not all creatures, by just right, to thee Duty and service, nor to stay till bid, But tender all their power? Nor mention I Meats by the law unclean, or offered first To idols-those young Daniel could refuse; Nor proffered by an enemy-though who
Would scruple that, with want oppressed? Behold, Nature, ashamed, or, better to express,
Troubled, that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed From all the elements her choicest store,
To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord With honour. Only deign to sit and eat."
He spake no dream; for, as his words had end, Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld, In ample space under the broadest shade, A table richly spread in regal mode, With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort And savour-beasts of chase, or fowl of game, In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled, Grisamber-steamed; all fish, from sea or shore, Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin, And exquisitest name, for which was drained Pontus, and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast. Alas! how simple, to these cates compared, Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!
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